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The president of Glendale Community College in Arizona was met with loud boos from graduates after she revealed that an artificial intelligence system used to read names at the commencement ceremony had skipped over some students.
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Tiffany Hernandez addressed the crowd near the end of the ceremony to explain that the school was using a new AI system as a reader. When she made the announcement, students responded with overwhelming boos.
Hernandez said those whose names were not initially called would be able to come onstage for their photo, with names announced through a microphone. "I am so sorry," she told the graduates.
Maricopa Community Colleges, which oversees Glendale college, said in a statement that it had apologised directly to students over the technical malfunction. "While the issue was corrected during the ceremony, we are sorry for the disruption it caused," the statement said.
The incident comes as commencement speakers across the country have been booed for mentioning AI in their speeches. At the nearby University of Arizona, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed while drawing parallels between the rise of computers and AI. At the University of Central Florida, a speaker was also met with boos after calling AI the "next industrial revolution."
